Sunday, November 27, 2016

This week, Monday to Friday, was pretty much the same as last week.  Dad finished up the theory portion of the course and all the students passed.  The next two weeks will be the hands-on part of the course which entails some visits to an airplane.  I continued on with my scripture study, knitting, French,  piano, aquafit, aerobics and tai chi.

On Friday, after Dad's work, we drove to Wagga for the weekend.  Auntie Norma, who is in a nursing home now, is not doing too well and so I wanted to go up there and spend some time with her.  We arrived in Wagga around 6pm on Friday - we first went to my cousin, Beth's house where we stayed during our time in Wagga.  Beth lives within a 3 minute walk from Auntie Norma's nursing home.  Beth has a second room with a single bed, but she decided to go and stay at Auntie Norma's house with Uncle Les (her dad).

After eating dinner, we went and visited with Auntie Norma - she has her own room at the nursing home.  When we first went into the nursing home, there was this horrid smell - fortunately, it dissipated the closer we got to Auntie Norma's room.  When we went into her room, she said to me 'oh, you brought my boyfriend with you' (meaning Dad) :-)   We had a really nice visit with her - her body is giving in, but her mind is sharp and so is her wit.  It was nice to have that time with her.  After our visit, we went over to Uncle Les' as my cousin, Cherylyn and her husband, Ross, had come down last Monday to spend some time with Uncle Les.  It was lovely to see them and Uncle Les again.

Yesterday, my cousin, Ian, came to visit Beth and so we got to visit with him as well.  After that visit, we headed over to see Auntie Norma again.  Cherylyn came in at lunch time to feed Auntie Norma (she can't do it herself as her hands shake too much) and we had some good chatting time and laughing time together.  After lunch, Dad stayed back at Beth's to do some work and I went and had another visit with Auntie Norma.  While I was there, I asked Auntie Norma what treat she would like me to buy for her from money which Nana had sent her.  She said she would like to have some lavender plants, so off I went with Beth and Cherylyn to buy her some.  Beth has set up a beautiful garden of various plants just outside of Auntie Norma's window at the nursing home, so she added the lavender plants to it.

 Auntie Norma with one of the lavender plants

Auntie Norma and me each holding a lavender plant

 Two views of the garden outside Auntie Norma's nursing home window

After that visit, Cherylyn, Ross, Beth, Dad, me and Ian and his wife, Loreen, went out for dinner to a local pub.  The food was pretty average, but it was nice to have more time to catch up with everyone.  Dad and I were going to go and visit with Auntie Norma again, but Ian and Loreen were going over, so we decided to let them have alone time with her.  So, Cherylyn, Ross, Beth, Dad and I went back to Beth's for hot chocolate and more chatting.

Beth, me, Cherylyn and Ross at Beth's house

This morning, I met up with my friend, Jenny, for about an hour - it would have been nice to have more time to catch up with her, but that's all the time I had today.  Jenny does catering and so, while we were chatting, she was busy making food for a client.  She cooks without a recipe at all - amazing!  It was really nice to be able to have some time with her if only a short bit.  Hopefully, next time I am in Wagga, we will be able to have more time to sit and chat.

Then, it was our last visit with Auntie Norma before we had to leave for home.  While we were visiting, my cousin, Kim came in to visit.  I hadn't seen her for about four years, so it was good to have a few minutes to catch up with her, as well.  So, it was like a little reunion with all my cousins this weekend.

 Driving out of Wagga towards Melbourne

'The Rock' - when I was a little girl, I climbed this 'rock' with my cousins - it ended up raining that day and we got soaked - I remember crying all the way home from being wet and cold :-)

Sunday, 20 November, 2016

This week was pretty much like last week - Dad continued with his teaching - and I continued with my scripture study, piano, French, knitting and walking.  This week, I also joined up with an aquafit class (I love being in the water), tai chi (really nice to get back to it) and an aerobic class (the instructor worked us well and I can tell you that the old ladies put me to shame :-)  It was great, though, getting in some other ways of exercising and I also like getting out and being social.  I also got out on my bike finally - way more fun doing a variety of exercising! :-)

Yesterday, we went to a city called Bendigo to go to another caravan and camping show.  We wanted to go and check out whether they were giving different deals than Brisbane to see if it would be worth driving down here to buy our camping trailer (it isn't).  The show was pretty much the same as the Brisbane show, so we didn't spend as much time there as we did in Brisbane.  I am not sure when we will get to buy our camping trailer, but Dad really wants to buy one from a dealer, whether it's new or used - he just feels more comfortable doing it that way.  We are going to drive up to the Bundaberg dealer (about 90 minutes from HB) when we get home to talk with them about buying one there.

Bendigo is such a beautiful city - the architecture is amazing!  We went to the Tourist Information place there and found out that the city of Bendigo has kept many of the original buildings and houses - I loved looking at them!  We are definitely going back there one day - I can't wait to do a walk around town checking out all the buildings, plus they have a tram tour and gold mine you can go down into - such a lot of history in that town.

 Dad at the end of the line to get into the Caravan and Camping Show - there were three rows and it took us ages to get in - tons of people interested in camping in Australia

 Country band playing for us as we waited in line

 Dad and I eating lunch (hamburger for Dad and chicken wrap for me) - we decided to support the Scout fundraiser - they had so many volunteers, it was great! - and the food was yummy, too

 Some of the architecture in Bendigo - love it!

 Scenery on the way home

Hill in the distance - Dad says they call it a 'mount' here cuz it's not a mountain :-)

Sunday, 13 November, 2016

Dad started his course last Monday and he says it's going great - there are 14 guys on the course.  Dad says they are all sharp and all keen and he really likes teaching these kinds of students.

I have been busy during the days playing piano, studying my scriptures and knitting.  I called the library to find out when the knitting clubs meets (that I was going to last time we were in Melbourne) only to be told that there weren't enough people coming and so they had stopped holding it.  The woman told me about another knitting group which met across the road from the library.  I went there on Friday - there were about half a dozen older women in the group.  They welcomed me right in and I went away with some free wool to make something which they will give to charity.  I decided on some blue and grey wool which I am using to make a baby sweater.

Start of the baby sweater I am knitting

After Dad was finished work that day, we went to find a 'nano' geocache (which means it was really really small).  I don't like those ones as usually they are just too difficult to find and it doesn't make geocaching fun.  As usual, we weren't able to find it even though we spent a lot of time looking for it.

On Saturday, Dad had to spend a lot of time prepping for his course, but we were able to get outside in the afternoon for a bit of a walk and some more geocaching.  We had some travel bugs to put into a cache and so we wanted to get them in asap as we had been holding on to them since we had been in Ontario.  We were able to find both geocaches fairly easily - I prefer to have a bit of a challenge in finding them, but it was still nice to go looking and to get out in the sun and fresh air.

 Dad looking under boardwalk where we found the first geocache

 Views from the first geocache (the city of Melbourne is in the background in the photo above)

We found the second geocache under a slat in this planter bench

After geocaching, Dad and I spent a little more time outside doing some front yard work.  Most of the front yard is covered with gravel so there is no lawn mowing to do - however, there is a strip of grass in front of the house which has to be taken care of.  Dad asked his boss if the company would pay for a whipper snipper so that he could take care of that strip of grass.  I used shears which we had bought last time we were in Melbourne to trim the bushes on the side of the yard while Dad was doing the whipper snipper.  It looks so much better now - Dad and I will need to do some more work on it next weekend, including some weeding (which I hate doing), but it will make the front look so much better.

 The bushes after I had finished trimming them

 The front strip of lawn half way through Dad's whipper snippering

Dad finishing up the front strip of lawn

Sunday, 6 November, 2016

Another busy week at home - always tons to get done in between Dad's work assignments.  This week (for me), it was a massage, a chiro appointment, and a facial.  Also, I met up with my friend, Bronwyn, for morning tea, my friends, Robyn, Jan and Daphnie for lunch and my friend, Maureen for afternoon tea and a movie (we saw 'The Girl on the Train' - I would give it a 5.5/10).  Dad's week was filled with tax stuff, a haircut, and chiro and dental appointments - I think that my week was more fun than Dad's. :-)  We also had Robyn and the missionaries for dinner which was really nice - we always love having them over and it's been ages since we have been able to do that.

We picked up our new car on Thursday - Dad was so excited that he could hardly sleep the night before and he could hardly eat anything for breakfast that morning - it was so cute! :-)  It took us ages to do all the paperwork, but after about an hour or so, Dad and I were able to drive out of the Toyota dealership with it.  We drove over to Robyn's so we could show it off to her - Dad loves the way the car drives!  Now, it will stay in the garage at home for the next seven weeks.

Dad in our new car at the Toyota dealership talking with David, the salesman who sold us the car (David took a photo of Dad and me in front of our car to be put on the Toyota Facebook page, but we haven't seen it up there yet)

Dad beaming from ear to ear in our new car

On Friday, we flew to Melbourne via Brisbane - typical flight, no dramas.  Yesterday, we drove to the Jayco caravan/camper trailer dealer (about an hour's drive away from the unit) to talk with a salesperson about the cost of accessories we might like to add to the camping trailer when we buy one.  There is a camping trailer for sale which I found online - it's only a year old and it has some great extras on it - unfortunately, it is all the way in South Australia which would take us 23 hours to drive to from HB.  Too bad, because it sounds amazing and is such a good price.  However, there is a Jayco dealer in Bundaberg which is only 90 minutes from HB, so we night just end up buying a new camping trailer.  We both love camping so much, so we are looking forward to lots of side trips when Dad is not working.

We went to church today and everyone was so welcoming - since Dad has worked a few times in Melbourne for weeks at a time, many of the members in the ward know us and are always happy to have us return.  I love how we can go anywhere in the world and feel welcome when we walk into a chapel. :-)

small white frog which we found attached to the front of our house